The key to the functional fitness of the the Premier League's top players is
‘suspension training’. Mark Bailey explains how it could
help you too

At first glance, the innovative ‘suspension training’ kit being used by Premier League footballers at Liverpool and Manchester City is a little underwhelming. Consisting of two heavy-duty straps, with a range of hand grips, foot cradles and attachments, it looks like something you might use to tether suitcases to the roof of your car, or to walk a particularly excitable and brawny dog.

Despite this deceptively simple appearance, suspension training allows athletes to perform 300-400 different exercises using a single piece of kit. It works by attaching the straps to a gym frame, a wall anchor or a door frame, enabling athletes to use their own bodyweight as a training aid to develop lean muscle, better balance, more fluid movement patterns and a multifaceted style of fitness which is ideally suited to the high-octane demands of Premier League football.

A popular suspension training brand is TRX, which is used by Liverpool players such as Luis Suarez, Steven Gerrard and Daniel Sturridge, and Manchester City players Alvaro Negredo, Joe Hart and Sergio Aguero. Manchester United, meanwhile, have used kit produced by FKPro.

If the kit seems simple, it’s because it was designed to be so. TRX founder Randy Hetrick developed his product during his time as a Navy SEAL by modifying an old jiu-jitsu belt and parachute webbing into a suspension training tool which helped him to stay fit in war zones. And Pete Faulkner and Mark Hammond, two former Bristol City fitness coaches who founded FKPro, wanted to develop a system that could be used by anyone, anywhere, any time. The kit is now commonly seen in commercial gyms and is available to buy for personal use.

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Suspension training is popular with Premier League footballers because it develops ‘functional fitness’ – a practical type of physical conditioning which prepares muscles and joints for the real-life movements and demands of a football match. The natural use of a player’s own bodyweight to build strength, instead of the use of metal weights, more accurately mirrors the physical requirements of a game: even the most narcissistic of Premier League prima donnas are unlikely to be performing biceps curls in the goal mouth, or squatting beneath a 200kg barbell by the touchline - but they might well need to execute an off-balanced, one-legged lunge for the ball or volley a shot towards goal with only one leg stable on the ground.

The imbalances caused by the suspension of different limbs during this kind of training develops a player’s balance, coordination and joint stability in unison, reducing the risk of on-field injuries. And an athlete’s ability to constantly alter their foot and hand positions during suspension training, instead of being locked into machines with limited planes of motion, more closely mimics the endless variations of movement and rapid changes of direction needed on the pitch.

“Football is a multi-directional sport with the majority of movements starting and ending with different foot positions,” explains ex-footballer, and Men’s Health Personal Trainer of the Year, Ben Camara. “Traditional gym exercises only work the player in one plane of movement. Squatting and lunging in a straight line won’t necessarily make you stronger on the football pitch when you’re off balance. With suspension training, you can more easily recreate the skills required on the pitch. For example, the hamstrings are very important in football, not just for power but for decelerating movements when jumping, sprinting and shifting in multiple directions. Suspension training allows you to work those hamstrings with suspended lunges, but also lets you change your foot and hip position which helps the body to acclimatise to the more unpredictable movements seen in football.”

Bolting together a series of exercises with the same piece of kit improves a footballer’s fluidity of movement, preparing their body for rapid changes in movement patterns. “You can change exercises instantly so you can work a different set of muscles with continuous reps instead of constantly dropping and changing weights or switching machines,” says Camara. The result is that you train your movements as well as your muscles.

It is no surprise that suspension training has become a popular weapon for Premier League support staff, including Manchester City's Head of Sport Science Dr Sam Erith: “Strength and conditioning forms an important part of our training programmes for all our squads. Players will work daily on individualised programmes with the goals of making key athletic movements more efficient and the body more resilient to the risk of injury. We have had great results using the TRX Suspension Trainer and TRX RIP Trainer in both our high performance and injury prevention programmes."

Recommended exercises for footballers include single-leg lunges, single-leg squat rows,oblique knee tucks, sprinter starts, mountain climbers, low rows, crossover balance lunges and hamstring curls. But what works for Premier League footballers can also help amateur athletes, too. “Suspension training conditions your body for any sport,” explains Camara. “It builds lean muscle instead of unwanted bulk, which can be unhelpful and unproductive in many sports; it galvanises your joints against injury; and it creates a functional fitness that will help you in whatever activity you do.”

THE TOP THREE FOOTBALL TRAINING DRILLS

Crossover Balance Lunges

Adjust the straps to chest height and grab both handles. Place one foot on the ground and raise your opposite leg in front of you until your knee is parallel to your hip. Lower yourself down with your working leg extended out in front of you. Slowly rise up again, then lower your working leg behind you, crossing behind the knee of your stationary leg. Your knee should finish behind the ankle of your stationary leg, but not touch the floor. Drive back up to the start. (x10 reps each leg)

Hamstring curls

Adjust the straps to calf height and lie on your back with both heels in the foot cradles. Keeping your back straight and your core tight, raise your hips off the ground and pull your legs upwards until your heels are almost touching your buttocks. Extend your legs out again and repeat (x20 reps)

Mountain climbers

With the straps positioned at calf height, place your toes in the foot cradles and adopt a press-up position. Keeping your hips elevated, lift your right knee up to your chest. As you lower your right knee back down, raise your left knee to your chest, and repeat the sequence throughout. (x 60 secs)